SK Telecom has launched an AI-powered customer service tool designed to enhance the efficiency of handling customer queries. This new system leverages SK Telecom’s self-developed Telco LLM (Large Language Model) and LMM (Large Multimodal Model) technologies, specializing in telecommunications knowledge. The customer service center has been testing the tool in Korea since mid-October, with a successful beta phase lasting about a month.
The Telco LLM was developed through collaboration with major international LLM companies like Anthropic, allowing the system to provide deep telecommunications expertise.
SK Telecom also created a dedicated LMM capable of understanding text and images related to communications, such as documents. The beta service gradually rolled out in mid-October and has shown promising results. It is the first time such an AI counseling system has been implemented in Korea’s customer service centers.
The system enhances work efficiency and delivers more personalized customer consultations. Utilizing its self-developed Telco LLM helps agents retrieve relevant information from internal databases more quickly, improving response times and service quality.
SK Telecom employed Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to further optimize the system, enabling the model to access only the most accurate data when answering customer queries. This feature boosts the reliability and precision of responses, ensuring that agents can provide the best possible service. The integration of RAG also improves the overall response quality by streamlining the data retrieval process, making it faster and more effective.
Over the past year, SK Telecom has restructured its knowledge management system to better align with AI needs. The company has fine-tuned its models using a variety of communication data and extensive feedback from customer service experts.
This iterative process, driven by reinforcement learning, has ensured that the Telco LLM and LMM are specifically tailored to handle telecommunications-related queries with the highest level of accuracy.
In addition to the core AI features, SK Telecom plans to roll out three innovative solutions: the AI Knowledge Search Assistant, Intelligent Document Processing, and an Automated Post-Processing System.
These features began testing in October and will be fully launched by 2025. The AI Knowledge Search Assistant allows agents to quickly access information in natural language, while Intelligent Document Processing uses the LMM to manage customer documents more efficiently. The Automated Post-Processing System, expected in December, will automate the categorization and summarization of consultation results, allowing agents to serve more customers without compromising quality.
“We will continue leveraging a variety of AI technologies to elevate customer consultations and deliver the best customer service experience in Korea,” said Hong Seung-tae, Vice President and Head of SK Telecom’s Customer Value Innovation Office.
“Our shift to an AI-driven contact center is not just about improving efficiency, but about delivering personalized, customer-focused service,” Hong Seung-tae added, emphasizing SK Telecom’s goal to set new benchmarks in AI-powered customer support.
